Improvement in furnaces for the manufacture of iron and steel



E. 8. WHEELER.

Furnaces for the Manufacture of Iron and Steel. N0.147,456, E E Pat'en tedFeb.10,1874,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELONZO s. WHEELER, or WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR 'ro HIMSELF, STEPHEN C. WARNER, or CLEVELAND, AND EDWARD .L. IlINMAN, or

COLUMBUS, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN FURNACES FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 147,456, dnfcd Ftbruaiy 10,1874; application filed October 24, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELONZO S. WHEELER, of VVestport, in the county of Fair-field and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in l\IalleableIron Furnaces; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in

Figure 1, a perspective View, and in Fi 2 a longitudinal section through the air-blast.

This invention relates to an improvement in that class of furnaces known as F air-blast furnaces,- and such as are commonly used in the manufacture of malleable iron, the object being to refine the iron to a greater extent; and theinvention consists inpassingtheiron, after it is melted, through the air-blast, over a succession of falls, so that the blast is driven through or in contact with the flowing metal as it passes through the blast to the drawoff.

A is the furnace or fire-box; B, the chamber; G, the flue, and I) the chimney, in construction substantially the same as in air-blast furnaces. E is a cupola or furnace, of similar construction, in which the pig-iron or ore is lead from the furnace 1*] directly into the furnace B at or near the top, and between the fire-box A and the lowest point of the furnace B, that the metal which is melted in the furnace E may flow directly into the air-blast fun 11 ace B, and there be struck by the blast from the furnace A, heated to a still greater extent, and thereby refined.

In order to give the metal more contact with the fire than it would have if it fell directly upon the bottom of the furnace, I arrange plates at b, more or less in number, inclining downward, one forward of the other, the first so that the metal will fall upon the upper surface, flow over that surface, and fall onto the next, and so on till it reaches the bottom, the blast passing between and over the plates.

I claim as my invention- The combination of a melting and an airblast furnace, when the said air-blast furnace is provided with a succession of plates, a 1), arranged so that the metal from the meltingfurnace will flowinto the airblast furnace over the said plates, and be brought into contact with the blast of that furnace, substantially as described.

ELONZO S. \VHEELER. lVituesses:

F. I). FANTON, FRANK \V. PERRY. 

